Assessment of coaxial printability for extrusion-based bioprinting of alginate-based tubular constructs

Abstract

Coaxial printing has emerged as a versatile technique of bioprinting for better capability in tissue engineering by allowing the injection of two materials having different mechanical and biochemical properties in two distinct layers. Thus, coaxial printing can enhance mechanical properties as well as biological activities in a coaxial structure. However, despite these advantages of coaxial printing, there was no experimental study regarding the evaluation of coaxial printability and shape fidelity for extrusion-based bioprinting. In this study, we quantitatively investigated coaxial printability and shape fidelity of the coaxial-printed scaffolds using alginate and Pluronic F-127 which are the most widely used biomaterials for bioprinting. With the optimal concentrations of calcium chloride for alginate, a 3D tubular structure with high shape fidelity could be directly fabricated using core-crosslinking method. The presented results suggest a methodological solution to improve the coaxial printability for various tissue engineering applications using coaxial bioprinting.